Melbourne Victory scored a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over a defiant New Zealand Knights combination at North Harbour Stadium on a chilly November 26 evening to revive their hopes of a play-off placing, while all but condemning the Kiwi team to the wooden spoon in the inaugural season of the Hyundai A-League.
It wasn't hard to see that this match featured two teams woefully short of winning form - the quality of finishing on show in the first twenty minutes of play provided evidence aplenty in this regard.
The visitors enjoyed the better of the initial exchanges, with Vince Lia cutting inside in the sixth minute to set up a chance for the fit-again Archie Thompson, whose angled run was well rewarded.
Jeremy Brockie raced across to thwart him, however, and, after Richard Kitzbichler had fired a twenty-five yarder over the bar, himself fired wide of the target at the other end of the park eleven minutes into play, as the Knights fired their first shot in anger.
Kitzbichler and Brockie continued their personal duel to open the scoring over the course of the next five minutes, but while neither player savoured success at this time, the Knights thrice came close to opening the scoring around the twenty minute mark.
Noah Hickey powered past Carl Recchia on Melbourne's left and fired an inviting cross towards Simon Yeo, who was arriving at the near post. Daniel Piorkowski was a step ahead of the striker, however, much to the visitors' relief.
Soon after, former Football Kingz goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos rode his luck when coming, seeing and badly missing a teasing cross from Brockie. Hickey was unable to capitalise on this occasion, while a rasping long-range effort from Jeremy Christie - a significant presence in the Knights midfield throughout this match - flew past the post soon afterwards, as the home team looked to score their first win of the season on home soil against opponents who, themselves, have struggled in recent matches.
Melbourne's response to this flurry of openings by the home team saw them produce the best move of the match thus far in the 23rd minute. Steve Pantelidis combined with Thompson, who clipped over a nicely weighted cross for Daniel Allsopp to meet with a fine header. It was bettered by the save it drew from Danny Milosevic, who flung himself to his left to paw the ball to safety.
Five minutes later, the Victory raided again. Former Austrian international Kitzbichler ran at a Knights rearguard shorn, for internal disciplinary reasons, of the services of captain Danny Hay. Kitzbichler then slipped the ball through for Thompson, who had made another angled run into the penalty area.
Frank Van Eijs went across to cover, and as Thompson checked, the defender instinctively stuck out an arm to prevent his opponent giving him the slip. Gravity suddenly had a magnetic attraction on the Socceroo striker, as he went down rather easily given the minimal contact involved.
There was enough contact, however, for referee Peter O'Leary to unhesitatingly point to the spot, from where Kevin Muscat sent Milosevic the wrong way to open the scoring, in the 29th minute.
Within ninety seconds, the Knights were on level terms, Christie having lashed a twenty-five yard free-kick goalwards, after Zenon Caravella had been impeded. The newcomer's shot took a wicked deflection off the defensive wall which completely wrong-footed Theoklitos - 1-1.
The goal gave the home team belief, and three minutes later, they produced one of their most enterprising attacks of the season. Sean Devine, who got through a truckload of work leading the line, produced a quality lay-off for Hickey, breaking out of defence on the right.
The All White fired the ball up the line instinctively, releasing Simon Yeo down the flank at pace. He held play up neatly before superbly turning Piorkowski near the edge of the penalty area, then racing into the box. An angled lay-off found Devine and Ben Collett arriving on cue, with the latter lashing a twenty yard drive towards the target. Again, Theoklitos was wrong-footed, but this time the sidenetting came to his rescue.
Still the Knights pressed, and five minutes from time, gained due reward for following their attacking instincts. An awful error by Muscat, of all people, was compounded when he hauled back Devine, as the striker darted in between the defender and Theoklitos, towards whom Muscat had directed an under-powered header.
Referee O'Leary again didn't hesitate, and the game witnessed its second penalty. No-one was going to deny Devine the chance to put the Knights in front in an A-League match for the first time since their only win in the competition, against Central Coast Mariners on September 10, and he lashed the ball unerringly beyond Theoklitos to give the home team a 2-1 lead.
It's an advantage they should have held until the interval, but they were undone on the stroke of same by a well crafted goal, superbly finished by its creator. Kitzbichler was Melbourne's saviour, latching onto a lay-off from Allsopp and taking the ball forward, with Thompson offering another option to his left.
The Austrian stuck with Allsopp, however, who got the better of Van Eijs before sliding a low cross in towards the near post. Kitzbichler had continued his run, and with the most deft of finishes, despatched the ball unerringly inside Milosevic's near post with such pace that the goalkeeper was still diving to cover the shot when it was rebounding off the back of the net - a cracking strike!
That made it 2-2, and all to play for in the second half, during the first twenty minutes of which it appeared only one team was interested in scoring. But try as they might, the Knights couldn't find a way past Theoklitos, who was relieved to see efforts from Yeo, Christie, Devine and Brockie all fly around but not at the target in this time.
Some of the football on show during this period wasn't pretty, with broken play aplenty in evidence - again proof that these two struggling sides were short on self-belief in their respective quests to end winless streaks which have lasted a fair few games in the case of both sides.
Half-way through the second spell, Melbourne, who hadn't fired a shot of anger in the half to this point in time, produced another great move which should have resulted in a goal.
Muscat split the Knights' rearguard with a splendid pass to get half-time substitute Andy Vlahos in behind the defence on the right. His low cross to the far post was an invitation for Allsopp to turn the ball home, but from four yards, he somehow contrived to screw his effort wide of the mark with the goal at his mercy, much to the relief of the 1,922 strong crowd - the lowest yet in the fledgling league's history.
Back came the Knights, a towering Milosevic clearance allowing Yeo to run at the Melbourne defence, something he did to great effect. Three opponents failed to close him down, but he lashed his shot a foot wide of Theoklitos' right-hand post, when a low cross to the same area of the pitch would have presented Devine with a tap-in.
It was to be a telling miss, for after Thompson had seen Milosevic smother a twenty-five yarder, Melbourne scored what proved to be the winning goal, seventeen minutes from time.
It was a classic counter-attacking goal, with Thompson taking the ball on in midfield and running at the Knights' defence, before slipping a pass into the path of the overlapping Kitzbichler. He smashed an angled shot high into the roof of the net from just inside the far edge of the penalty area - 3-2 Melbourne, who now had Victory in their grasp!
They threatened to increase their lead six minutes later, when a long-range free-kick from substitute Kristian Sarkies dipped late and hit the crossbar. Brockie, who was full of running throughout but whose use of the ball upon getting into good positions often exposed his inexperience, responded by latching onto a Collett pass, then scything inside Sarkies before firing a shot wide of the near post.
Michael Ferrante warmed the gloves of Milosevic four minutes from time, while Van Eijs and substitute Naoki Imaya both went close at the death for the locals as they vainly pursued the equalising goal their efforts in this match fully merited.
But after Ricky Diaco had fired wide of the mark four minutes into stoppage time, referee O'Leary brought an end to Melbourne's recent run of poor form, their 3-2 victory extending the Knights' run of defeats to eleven matches, and giving the victors' hopes of making the end-of-season play-offs a welcome boost, fifth place being their lot after this result.